Was 2012 a good year for movies?

For the past 10 years or so, Radio Times has invited political consultant and avid movie-goer Neil Oxman and Daily News movie critic Gary Thompson for an annual year-at-the-movies show, and they're back again this year to share their selections for best and worst.

After three years of declining audiences, Americans returned to the movies this year — ticket sales were up 5.6 percent. It was a big year for big-budget thrillers, with The Avengers making $623 million in the U.S., and The Dark Knight Rises, with $448 million in the U.S.

Then there were historically inspired films including Lincoln, Django Unchained, Argo, and the controversial Zero Dark Thirty — and Hollywood epics like Les Miserables, Anna Karenina, and Cloud Atlas.

Smaller films like The Silver Linings Playbook and Beasts of the Southern Wild were critically praised and garnered a lot of attention, too.

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